Opposite
me now sits the Führer's
silver cigar box with the logo
of the Third Reich on its
lid.

[Images added
by this website]

London,
February 1, 2003

David
Irving comments:

ALL OF THIS is a nice story,
and Mr Putzell may well believe
it by now. Miss Petronella
Wyatt, bless her, certainly
does. Such are the
quirks of human memory. The devil
is, as always, in the detail: He
gave the Reichsmarschall a
cyanide "tablet"? Not so. The
glass ampoule containing the
amber liquid and its brass
"cartridge case" container were
standard Nazi issue, and the
remnants were found. An exhaustive
US Army investigation of the
Göring suicide filled 200
pages, complete with photographs
of the ampoule used. (I wonder
why the British Army never did a
similar investigation of
Heinrich Himmler's
"suicide".) I obtained
access to this (it was in the
safe file of the Berlin Document
Center, with his last letters,
marked Never to be Published) and
I revealed the details in my
Göring
biography many, many years
ago. For a while my friend the
late Ben Swearingen had
the actual brass ampoule
container involved. As said, it's in the
detail: Like that "cigar box" of
the Führer. Ahem, a
fanatical
non-smoker. . .

The
quality of mercy

Petronella
Wyatt

I AM sitting on a cream
sofa in the evening sunset of Florida.
Next to me is the man who killed Hermann
Goering -- or rather helped him to kill
himself. Some received wisdom says that
Goering committed suicide without aid, but
this is not the case, as I have just found
out. When a young man of about 30, this
person beside me gave the Reichmarshal the
cyanide pill that saved him from having to
undergo the ordeal of the gallows.

The name of this extraordinary man is
Ned Putzell. Now 89, he has retired
to Naples on the Gulf coast. He is tanned,
spare and has laser-bright brown-grey
eyes. He is wearing a crisp, white shirt,
chequered trousers and large
spectacles.

It all began when my host mentioned to
me casually that in the apartment upstairs
lived the man who gave Goering a cyanide
pill. At first I thought he was joshing.
But here I am, sipping a Diet Coke and
listening to this fantastic tale.

Mr Putzell was born in Louisiana. He
attended Harvard Law School and eventually
ended up working for the law firm of a man
called Donovan. This was no
ordinary Donovan, but the great American
hero of the first world war. Mr Putzell,
leaning forward conspiratorially, told me
that Donovan was a far greater soldier
than MacArthur, the latter a name
far better known to English ears.

During the 1914-18 war, Donovan was
stationed in northern France, fighting in
the trenches. MacArthur was leading the
regiment next to him, geographically. When
the Germans attacked, it is a little-known
fact that MacArthur turned on his heels.
Donovan, however, stood his ground, won
and was awarded the Congressional Medal of
Honour. Americans, it seems, do not appear
to know of MacArthur's behaviour on this
occasion.

'Through Donovan, I came to examine
Goering during the preparations for the
Nuremberg trials,' Putzell told me. 'A lot
of high-ranking Americans believed his
heart had not really been in the Nazi
cause. Before Hitler killed himself,
Goering was already giving vital
information to us which I passed on to the
president.'

Roosevelt had decided a while
before that the United States required a
proper espionage system. This was started
by Donovan and became known as the OSS --
the Office of Strategic Services. Donovan
was chosen to be one of the co-prosecutors
at Nuremberg and took Putzell with him as
his aide. Other high-ranking Nazis on
trial were Albert Speer, Ribbentrop,
Alfred Rosenberg and Julius
Streicher.

WHAT was Goering like? I asked Putzell.
'Oh, he could be very charming indeed.'
This was a view shared by Hartley
Shawcross on the British side, who
recollects that Goering repeatedly winked
at him during examination. 'Then, again,
he might have been acting,' Putzell
continues.

'When I questioned Goering, the plan
was to find out whether he had been a
truly dedicated Nazi. I don't think he
was. Hitler had suspected him of
disloyalty and other Germans told us that
Goering was not a strong supporter.'

But he was condemned, nonetheless, I
retorted. Putzell nods, his glasses
sliding towards the middle of his aquiline
and rather handsome nose.

'Yes,
but Donovan secretly decided, with the
agreement of the British contingent, to
let him die by cyanide. Goering had been
very co-operative with us and he genuinely
did seem deserving of some sort of
mercy.'

How did they get hold of the cyanide? I
was surprised by the answer. 'Everyone in
active service in the OSS was given a
cyanide pill in case they were captured by
the Germans and tortured. So we had quite
a few on us.'

Putzell and a colleague handed
one tablet to
Goering (top right, in dock at
Nuremberg). How did he react? Putzell
laughs gutturally. 'I think he was glad to
have it. It was better than being hanged.'
Much better as it turned out. Some of the
hangings were botched horribly.

Putzell and his wife Dorothy, a
pristine and smart blonde, now live in
Naples permanently. Most English people
believe that the west coast of Florida is
quiet and uneventful, full of purblind
retired bankers and brokers. Full of men
and women whose reminiscences are solely
about dosh. But this is not the case.

Consider my host: his division was one
of the first into house beneath the
Eagle's Nest. Opposite me now sits the
Führer's silver cigar box with the
logo of the Third Reich on its lid. Then,
in a drawer in the next room, there is an
exquisite lacquered box given to Hitler by
the Emperor of Japan. These mementoes of
the second world war are unique. So is Mr
Putzell.